MIT receives $118M gift from alumnus to advance research on real estate development

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has received a $118 million gift from an alumnus to advance socially responsible and sustainable real estate, with a focus on China.

The gift announced Thursday from Samuel Tak Lee, who earned two degrees from MIT in the early 1960s, is one of the largest in the school's history.

The money will be used to establish the Samuel Tak Lee MIT Real Estate Entrepreneurship Lab, and will fund student fellowships; support research on real estate and urbanization; and make the lab's curriculum available to online worldwide.

Lee says his gift was motivated by a desire to design a program with MIT that ties the study of real estate to 21st-century realities such as land reform, environmental challenges, burgeoning populations, and an evolving global economy.